About a decade ago, the collective global conscience was in for a shock like no other when the sexual depravities & medieval barbarities of the Jihadis fighting for the Islamic State of Iraq & Syria were out in the open for the world to witness. Indoctrinated Islamists from across the world had descended upon the levant to create a caliphate in the 21st century based on the values of the 15th; which included the right to treat women worse, than animals. Women and especially those who happened to be non-Muslims like Yazidis & Christians, were captured, imprisoned, and used as sex slaves till the ‘caliphate’ was wiped out of the face of the earth by US-led coalition forces. The horrors perpetuated by the caliphate were many including but not restricted to suicide bombings, using human shields in war, and burning down museums & non-Islamic places of worship, but the crimes perpetuated on women who were used as the spoils of war scarred our very sense of humanity for decades to come. Fast forward to 2024; moving from Syria to Sandeshkhali, medievalism & barbarity of the ISIS variety is getting perpetuated within the very borders of India.
Sandeshkhali, a small island on the Kalindi river in the north 24 Parganas district of West Bengal bordering Bangladesh has been in the news since the January 5, 2024 when a team from the Enforcement Directorate acting on the orders of the Calcutta High Court went to raid the residence of local Communist turned Trinamool Congress leader Sheikh Shahjahan who happens to be the prime accused in the ration distribution scam case. He also happens to be prime accused in the post poll violence of 2021. The officials from ED, duly escorted by central paramilitary forces were attacked in a targeted manner by Shahjahan’s henchmen, who were no less trained than a private militia and intended to cause serious harm and possibly death, thereby attempting to portray Sandeshkhali as a region outside the realm of law where the writ of the state can no longer run.
Sandeshkhali is the latest incarnation of what Bengal knows as “মুক্তাঞ্চল” or liberated zones run by criminal kingpins, of which Shahjahan too is the latest avatar. From Naxalbari in the north to Junglemahal in the west run by Naxalites & Maoists, to Sashan run by Majid Master, Metiabruz run by Kalimuddin Shams and Garbeta run by Sushanta Ghosh; West Bengal has seen successive ruling parties give up certain zones to known criminals masquerading as mass leaders in order to get their services to rig elections and ensure the party in power stays in power. The modus operandi in these zones is common across the regimes; mute the opposition, silence the dissenting voices, turn the police and the local administration into extensions of the party in power and ensure complete control of all economic resources & means of livelihood. Shahjahan has managed to add two poisonous ingredients into this deadly cocktail. The first is to settle large number of Rohingyas from across the porous border with Bangladesh so as to permanently alter the demographic profile of Sandeshkhali, which in turn would help him turn the criminal minded Rohingyas into his private militia. Rohingyas were the very people who attacked the central team with deadly weapons and criminal intent. The second act of his has shocked the collective consciousness of the people of India.
The women of Sandeshkhali had been turned into objects cheaper than commodities for Shahjahan and his accomplices to use and throw at their will. The grotesque saga of Sandeshkhali is unfolding with Women speaking up about the unimaginable abuse they had to face. Shahjahan and his accomplices would turn up at the doors of villagers every evening and round up women by force after silencing the male members of their family with threats. These helpless women would invariably be Hindus but never Muslim. The rounded-up women were then forcibly taken to premises owned by Shahjahan’s aides Shiboprasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar and then sequestered on the basis of their age, looks, and vulnerabilities to be further distributed amongst the criminals to rape or gang rape as and when they so desired. This is a fate that no civilised society would want even their enemies to face.
This ISIS style medievalism continued for years, with numerous women being robbed of their honour and dignity while West Bengal had a women chief minister who simply chose to look the other way just to secure a few votes that would sway two parliamentary constituencies, Basirhat and Barasat, in her favour. If vote bank politics is to be taught as a practice that is abhorrent and not to be followed, then history must look no further than Sandeshkhali. The state government has reacted quite predictably once these events came to light by imposing prohibitory orders, taking down mobile internet services to stop the news from spreading, helping the criminal masterminds flee and using the police in an attempt to forcibly curb the outrage and spontaneous protests of the victims. Bengali Hindus have a storied tradition of considering our gods as members of our very own families where the feminine is worshipped as the divine. There is a Durga, a Kali and a Saraswati among those who are fighting an uphill battle against the might of the state and will not take matter lying down anymore. The women of Sandeshkhali have drawn a Lakshman Rekha of thus far and no further, which no force or power is capable of breaching. If only the unholy power brokers of Bengal chose to listen.
Union minister Smriti Irani has rightly taken cognisance of this ghastly saga and has brought out the true character of the chief minister by exposing her complicity in the genocide and rape of Hindus in West Bengal. The national commission for women has sent a team to ascertain facts on the ground but beyond the shock and disbelief of Bharat at large it is the people and especially the youth of West Bengal who must introspect on why they have chosen to hand over the reins of power to medieval entities who over the last 47 years have chosen to drag the state from being the pride to being the shame of our nation. Imagine these events happening in a BJP ruled state with the victims being Muslims; left liberal outrage would have peaked to a crescendo and calls would be made for international intervention into India. Those who chose to selectively protest and remain quite based on the place of occurrence of an atrocity would be well reminded of what fate would befall them if these irredentist forces are given a free run. They need not look any further than Sandeshkhali because in the end what matters is not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends. If only our friends in the opposition chose to listen.
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